Luxembourg, 21/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Henceforth, the compilation of European environmental economic accounts must be done within a framework common to all EU member states. The EU Council on Tuesday 21 June adopted, without debate, the regulation establishing the new EU-wide statistical framework, allowing monitoring of the pressures exerted by the European economy on the environment and helping to explore how these might be abated.
The new legislation makes it an obligation for member states to communicate statistics to the Commission each year (via Eurostat) on their air emissions, the environmentally related taxes they charge and the material flows in their economy. The first reporting year is 2011 and member states have up to two years to transmit their data to Eurostat. In time, the regulation could be extended to other environmental statistics. The Council accepted all amendments voted by the European Parliament on 7 June, ensuring that there is nothing now to stand in the way of final adoption of the act. (A.N./transl.jl)